Windows Central: “Microsoft revamps the Start menu in Windows 11 — scrollable layout, new views, and fewer clicks”

The new Start menu offers a larger layout that adapts to the screen resolution, but you don’t have an option to set its size.

Given how large the new design is, I can already hear the complaints about not being able to resize the layout manually.

Since this new layout unifies the interface, it only provides one experience divided into three sections, including “Pinned”, “Recommended”, and “All”.

You will also notice that if you have a mobile device connected to your computer, then the Start menu will also show a toggle to show or hide the mobile sidebar.

Mauro Huculak

This updated layout has slowly made its way to my devices, first appearing on my work laptop sometime in December, and now on my personal laptop earlier this week. It looked like a rather underwhelming update at first. While I started using the Phone Link integration more often and generally find it useful — save for the instances when it stubbornly refuses to connect to my phone for no apparent reason — I don’t see the need for a dedicated panel in the Start Menu, so I immediately disabled this new feature. This aside, nothing much seemed to have changed in the Start layout.

Windows Latest: “Meta just killed native WhatsApp on Windows 11, now it opens WebView, uses 1GB RAM all the time”

WhatsApp on Windows 11 has just got a ‘major’ upgrade, and you’re probably going to hate it because it simply loads web.whatsapp.com in a WebView2 container. This means WhatsApp on Windows 11 is cooked, and it’s back to being absolute garbage in terms of performance.

WhatsApp is one of those Windows apps that went from being a web wrapper to a native app and then back to the web again after all these years of investment.

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An app can use a lot of memory, and it does not necessarily mean it’s a performance nightmare, but the issue with the new WhatsApp is that it feels sluggish. You’re going to notice sluggish performance, long loading time, and other performance issues when browsing different conversations.

We also noticed that it does not work well with Windows notifications. It also struggles with Windows 11’s Do Not Disturb mode or Active Hours. And there are delayed notifications problems as well.

Mayank Parmar

While reading about this update I initially doubted it was as bad as people feared, since people do tend to exaggerate things online for dramatic purposes. But after the update reached one of my devices, I get what everyone was complaining about, and I feel compelled to join in!

Windows Latest: “Bye USB, File Explorer gets Android storage integration”

Android storage integration in File Explorer is one of those Windows 11 cross-platform features that works really well. It works smoothly without hiccups, and I can now see all my documents, pictures, and files from my Android phone (Galaxy S23) in File Explorer.

It’s identical to accessing the storage using a USB cable, but thanks to deeper integration using Cross Device Experience Host, it’s completely wireless.

With Windows 11’s Android integration, you can open File Explorer and notice your phone’s name on the left sidebar. When you click the shortcut, your phone’s internal storage opens in the File Explorer.

Mayank Parmar

After seeing this article shared on Reddit, I tried it on my devices today and it is already up and running here. The initial beta announcement for the feature was in late July this year, so a relatively fast rollout. Kudos to Microsoft for including Windows 10 in the release (although a more cynic take would be that they felt bound to support it because of the slow adoption of Windows 11); hopefully this means I can use this equally well on my Surface tablet, which I don’t intend to update until Windows 10’s end-of-life.

XDA: “3 reasons people are moving from Windows 11 back to Windows 10”

Recently, StatCounter posted a chart showing that Windows 10’s market share is growing, while Windows 11’s is shrinking. This flies in the face of what Microsoft has planned, especially given how Windows 10’s end-of-life date is looming in the distance. As such, I wanted to do some research into the topic; did StatCounter’s statistics get things wrong? Or are people downgrading from Windows 11 to Windows 10? While there’s no way to state without a doubt that people are downgrading, I did find people with pain points with Windows 11 that might be contributing to the system’s downfall.

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Again, this is speculation on my part, but I can’t help but notice that the Windows 11 adoption rate began reversing in January 2024, when Microsoft began introducing and announcing new Copilot features. There’s a chance that people are turning back to Windows 10 to dodge the 24H2 update, either as individuals who dislike the tools or as businesses that don’t want to entrust their private data with artificial intelligence.

Simon Batt

Pretty embarrassing for Microsoft to be losing market share on their most recent OS – then again, Windows 11 has been a pretty embarrassing upgrade from Windows 10. In the three years since its release things have barely improved, while Microsoft seems completely oblivious to these challenges faced by consumers and focused on chasing wild AI dreams instead of polishing the OS and expanding hardware support. I expect adoption problems will only worsen as Microsoft adds more AI features, as these will require hardware upgrades many will be reluctant to perform – including corporate customers.

Windows Insider Blog: “New updates for Snipping Tool and Phone Link begin rolling out to Windows Insiders”

With this update to Snipping Tool (version 11.2308.33.0), we are introducing Text Actions, which detects text in your captured screenshots, making it easy to copy text from any image to share with others or paste in another app. To get started, click the Text Actions button in the toolbar to show selectable text before selecting and copying text with your mouse. You can also click the Copy all text button in the toolbar or use Ctrl + A and Ctrl + C to select and copy all text using your keyboard.

With Text Actions, you can also redact sensitive information in screenshots before sharing. Select Quick Redact from the toolbar to automatically hide emails and phone numbers or select any text and select Redact Text from the right-click menu to hide the text.

Dave Grochocki

I noticed this update to the Snipping Tool just last week, although I usually don’t open the full app after taking a screenshot, so it may have been there for a while. It’s a handy addition, especially when you’re dealing with PDF documents (either scanned or locked to prevent text copying) and need to quickly extract some text. It can save a lot of time typing out information, and seems pretty accurate in my short experience with it.

The Keyword: “Nearby Share for Windows on Android is now available”

Nearby Share for Windows, available as an app download on PCs around the world, has now been installed by more than 1.7 million people. With photos and videos being the most popular file types to send, we’ve seen over 50 million files transferred between PC and Android devices since launch. No need to search for any cables or cords – sharing media to your own devices or with nearby friends and family is possible with just a few clicks.

Today marks the official launch of Nearby Share with Windows, offering improved performance and new functionality that can make it even easier for you to share content and stay productive.

Ronald Ho

I have never been quite satisfied with most methods to share files between phones and PCs. The initial way of connecting them with a USB cable has the fastest transfer speed, so it’s great for backing up photos (especially because I shoot RAW on my smartphone as well) and other files, but for a small number of files it’s unwieldy to gather the cable and navigate folders to locate the files. Uploading them to OneDrive or other cloud services can also be time-consuming, as the app sometimes logs you out and you still have to search for the files. I could never get used to Microsoft’s Phone Link, as in its earlier iterations it failed to connect more often than not and newer versions were obnoxious with its constant notifications and permissions requests – not to mention I simply don’t need most of its features.

XDA: “Facebook Messenger widget makes its debut in latest Windows 11 preview”

It’s been a long time coming, but the first non-Microsoft widget to appear on Windows 11 is finally here — as long as you’re a Windows Insider, at least. Microsoft is rolling out Windows 11 build 25284 to Insiders in the Dev channel, and with it comes a widget for Facebook Messenger, the first third-party widget to ever grace the OS.

Microsoft enabled support for third-party widgets a few months ago with an earlier build, and then updated the Windows App SDK to allow these widgets to be developed. Now, we’re seeing the first results of that. The Messenger widget will make your most recent messages easily available on the Widgets board, so it’s easier to get to your recent conversations.

João Carrasqueira

I recently noticed and added the new Messenger widget as well, so it’s safe to assume this update has been rolled out to the Windows 11 stable channel. A couple of other apps have widgets available, though the selection remains tiny; for now Facebook and Spotify seem to be the only non-Microsoft companies to have opted in.